"Michigan Toy Soldier - S Models" Topic

I ordered 6 S-Model BRDM (& AT version) in April of this year. I received 2 of the 6 boxes along with an email stating that they would ship the remainder at no additional postal expense in two to three weeks. I have email on a monthly basis and have been told repeatedly that the kits should be in "a week or two". Timeline seems excessive and I have initiated all but the first email. Anyone else having these issues? I will say that in the past I have had excellent service but this time I still do not have my kits after four and a half months reasonably patient waiting…

I've been trying to get them to pay their bills for years. I don't recommend doing business with them.

Give them a telephone call. It's been over four years since I've visited their shop. Their on-premises staff may have changed. I have not mail ordered in over a year, but my previous mail orders have been filled promptly and correctly.

I had the same issue several years ago with some WWII vehicles. I called and told them to cancel the rest of the order and refund the balance. I wonder if the models are coming in and being sold instead of being pulled for your back order.

Yes, some shops will do this if they're having cash flow issues.

Or maybe they are on credit hold with that vendor…

Isn't the old owner still in jail for credit card fraud?

I would call them. They could be having cash flow problems again.

Give them a phone call.

Many times "special" items that stores get are very difficult to get again. S Models are such an item. So even though stores say they carry S Models, or think that because they got them once that they can get them again, they can't. They're at the mercy of their distributors.

Similarly, I have had MTS check for a few packs of Warlord Napoleonics for me. Being a big company like Warlord, you'd think it's no problem, yes? No luck. Out of stock at not one, but three distributors with no indication when the items will be back in stock. Again, you never know.

I would give them a call to get an update.

I'd call them and give them the "Come on guys. What's really going on?" routine. Maybe over the phone they will tell you exactly why the delay and perhaps you can get things straight or a refund for the missing items.

@tigrifsgt,

No, if I recall the story correctly he did some short jail time and was also ordered by the court to pay back the amount he had fraudulently charged. I believe that he has completely or nearly completely paid back everything he charged.

The thing that makes this story stick in my mind even to this day was that the guy that he tried to stiff was none other than Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings movie fame! Jackson is an avid collector of WWI toy soldiers and miniatures. He ordered some stuff from Michigan Toy I think like in 2007 or something.

Jackson took a look at his statement and saw like $150,000 USD in charges (Michigan Toy used Jackson's card to stock up on new inventory). They pretty quickly discovered who made the charges.

The thing that makes me really hesitant to buy anything from this company is the fact that the owner said that because it was a big Hollywood movie director with huge credit limits on his card, he didn't think that Jackson would notice! That is big time devious thinking. Ironic thing was that Jackson's card only had a few thousand charged to it before that, so that gigantic amount stood out immediately!

Only reason the owner paid Jackson back was because he got caught.

Look, I realize that people in life make mistakes, and that you can redeem yourself from those mistakes. But there's plenty of companies to choose from out there, I'll skip this one.

I thought he sold it to someone else, but I could be mistaken.

The theft was closer to the $200,000 USD mark instead of the $150,000 USD mark.

Wasn't it the second time he had done something like that?

Is this the Michigan Toy Soldier shop in Royal Oak?…I play games there on Thursday nights.

Yepper, it is.

Believe they "tapped" my credit card back in the day but the CC company caught it. It was kind of nickle and dime but irritating !

Hmm…been dealing with them for years and never had an issue.

Baranovich's story sounds a bit far fetched though as I never saw anyone go to jail or heard a word of it.

Still will check around.

I do know they deal mostly with obscure lines and do not carry a lot of stock. Outstanding modeling supply line in store though.

@Shadowcat20,

My story sounds a bit "farfetched"?….. I'm not making this stuff up just for laughs! So unless the London Telegraph is in the business of making up stories out of thin air… ummmm ……

Here's the entire story right here! The guy is lucky he didn't lose his business altogether!:

link

And 79th Pa was correct, it was closer to $200,000 USD than $150,000. USD

I have no doubts that you've had no problems in dealing with the guy. Apart from the huge credit card fraud incident, he may indeed be a good store manager and good with his customers as far as filing orders on time and communicating. But it doesn't make this story untrue!

If the London Telegraph story doesn't satisfy, here's another one covering the same incident from the Royal Oak Patch, the town's own newspaper. Titled,"Michigan Toy Soldier Owner Gets Jail Time in Peter Jackson Credit Card Fraud". This was a huge deal:

link

Here's the TMP thread on it:

TMP link

@Shadowcat: Who owns the store now?

If the store is under new ownership and Shadowcat is talking about a different owner he's dealing with, then I do apologize for jumping the gun. I assumed that the store was still run by the same man.

But as far as I know, Mich. Toy is still run by Rick Berry, the same fellow in the news stories.

The thing about this whole episode that is very interesting is that Berry was ordered by the court to pay Jackson back for the amount charged, the amount set was about $1,800 USD a month. BUT, because Berry purchased all the merchandise in a lawful way, i.e. used a legitimate credit card as opposed to physically robbing it from somewhere, he was able to keep all the merchandise. It's kind of a weird thing because in a sense, Berry was still able to achieve what he set out to do, which was stock his store all in one shot so that there would be no supply worries for years to come. The fact that he had to pay Jackson back in small payments didn't prevent him from acquiring all the merchandise he got.

And in being able to keep all the merchandise, his business had the stimulus it needed to continue operating as a business. Paying back Jackson a little at a time was actually manageable.

It's really no different than if you use your own credit card to run up like $10,000 USD in charges, and then you make no payments and throw away the card. You owe the money to the credit card company, but nobody can come and take the merchandise, because technically it's "paid for" at the point of purchase. And if you decide to not pay back the credit card debt, it takes years of collections requests and even longer to finally have a court come in and order you to make payments. You can run up a card and really have little fear of being forced to do anything for several years at least.

And even then, the court can only make you pay what you can afford per month. So on $10,000 USD you pay like $20 USD a month and it never gets paid off, the person dies before the debt gets cleared.

OK, read all the little news articles and will check it out when I get there Thursday. I do know they had a staff change a few years back and this whole ball of wax dropped 9 years ago. Not sure who is in charge now.

And in being able to keep all the merchandise, his business had the stimulus it needed to continue operating as a business.

This is the part that really teed off at least one of his competitors. I'm sure there were others thinking the same thing, but I only spoke about it at length with one of them. He considered it an unfair business advantage.

@ArmymenRGreat,

Exactly! If you think about it, fraudulent credit card use is actually a pretty darn clever crime if it's done in the way Berry did it. You nailed it. The fact that he now had all kinds of stock on hand, years worth of stock illegally amassed all in one shot – stock in such quantities that his competitors could not afford to buy all at one time for their own stores meant that both his brick and mortar location and his online store had an advantage. As a customer you'll gravitate towards who is easier to shop from.